Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
There is a great amount of captured CO2 in the world's oceans and seas. This is the result of CO2 in the atmosphere dissolving in seawater. Thus, as more CO2 is released into the atmosphere, the amount of CO2 in the oceans and seas continues to rise. This is problematic for various reasons, such as the fact that increased CO2 levels in the ocean makes the ocean more acidic.
In particular, the reaction of CO2 with seawater produces carbonic acid as follows: CO2+H2O→H2CO3. Carbonic acid is diprotic, and thus disassociates in two ways, releasing hydrogen ions (H+) and either bicarbonate (HCO3−) or carbonate (CO32−) ions. Both dissociations can occur simultaneously, with the amount of dissociated carbonic acid that releases bicarbonate as compared carbonate varying according to the pH of the water. In typical seawater, the majority of CO2 dissociation releases bicarbonate. In both cases, the release of hydrogen ions increases the acidity of the seawater (i.e., lowers the pH of the seawater).